BUSINESS MANAGEMENT

& ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Issa J. Edward, MBA
Department of Applied Sciences
The Malawi Institute of Technology
Malawi University of Science and Technology
 BUSINESS MANAGEMENTENTREPRENEURSHIP

SESSION 6

THE MARKETING PLAN

Delivering Value to the Customer
FROM IDEAS TO REALITY: CREATIVITY AND INNOVATION
Learning outcome

• Participants should be able to:

1. Define Marketing and the marketing mix elements
2. Explain the different levels of your product and the
production processes
3. State means and ways of informing customers about the
product and influencing them to buy (promotion)
4. Set the appropriate price for the product considering the
product decisions and business objectives
5. Decide on distribution and accessibility of the product
6. Outline the extended marketing mix elements for services.
 Undersealing Marketing
Marketing Defined: CIM UK.
• The management process responsible for identifying, anticipating and satisfying consumer
requirements profitably.
• Marketing management is the art and science of choosing target markets and building profitable
relationships with them - the conscious effort to achieve desired exchange outcomes with target
markets.
• Marketing aims to find, attract, keep and grow the targeted customers by creating and delivering
superior customer value.
• In essence, the marketing function is the study of market forces and factors and the development of
a company's position to optimise its benefits from them
• It is all about getting the right product to the customer at the right price, in the right place at the
right time.
• Every product that we buy, every shop we visit, every media message we receive, every choice we
make in our consumer society has been shaped by the forces of marketing
• The marketing process is central to the business performance of companies, large and small
because it the most important aspects of the competitive market place
 The Marketing Process
• Marketing is how companies create value for customers and build strong
customer relationships to capture value from customers in return.
• The question is how does this work?
 THE MARKETING PLAN

One of the key factors in Barack Obama’s victory in the 2008 U.S.
presidential election was a well-designed and well-executed marketing program
 THE MARKETING PLAN DEFINED

• A marketing plan is a written document that summarizes what the marketer has learned about the
marketplace and indicates how the organization’s strategic objectives will be achieved through
specific marketing strategies and tactics, with the customer as the starting point.
• A marketing plan allows a company to outline its marketing strategy for a specific period of time.
• It contains tactical guidelines for the marketing programs and financial allocations over the planning
period.
• The marketing plan will clearly describe you marketing strategy –which is essentially the marketing
logic by which your business hopes to create customer value and achieve profitable customer
relationships
• Marketing strategy will include the marketing objectives, your target market and how your business
will arrange for a product to occupy a clear, distinctive and desirable place relative to competing
products in the minds of consumers (positioning)- your brand benefits and points of difference.
• A good marketing plan will provide direction and focus for your brand, product, or company
• With a detailed plan, any business will be better prepared to launch an innovative new product or
increase sales to current customers
 THE MARKETING PLAN DEVELOPMENT

• The Marketing Plan is the most important part of a business plan.

• To keep one’s business on course this plan must be geared toward the business’s mission—its
product and service lines, its markets, its financial situation and marketing/sales tactics.
• The business must be aware of its strengths and weaknesses through internal and external analysis and look for market
opportunities.
• The business must analyze its products and services from the viewpoint of the customer—outside-in thinking. What is the
customer looking for and what does the customer want (benefits)? The business must gain knowledge of the marketplace from its
customers.
• The business must analyze its target markets. What other additional markets can the business tap into and are there additional
products or services the business can add?
• The business must know its competition, current and potential. By identifying the competitor’s strengths and weaknesses the
business can improve its position in the marketplace.
• The business must make decisions on how to apply its resources to the target market(s).
• The business must utilize the information it has gathered about itself, its customers, its markets, and its competition by developing
a written Marketing Plan that provides measurable goals.
• The business must select marketing/sales tactics that will allow it to achieve or surpass its goals.
 The Marketing Plan Key Benefits

▪ A marketing plan makes sense of your business environment -when developing your marketing strategy you need to
account for your customers, your competitors, and all of the factors that could impact
▪ A marketing plan enables clear decision making – having determined what factors will affect your business and
evaluating what resources you have to deal with them, you are now able to make all the marketing decisions you need.
▪ A marketing plan integrates long term planning and short term implementation - your marketing plan should think 3-
5 years down the road, giving you the ability to look ahead and be prepared to meet any changes when they occur. It
won’t be set in stone, though.
▪ A marketing plan prevents panic decisions - the flip side of this coin, of course, is that a forward looking marketing
plan will give you as clear a view as possible of what is going on in the market place, as well as providing you with a
framework in which to make any decisions to deviate from your plan. Sometimes there will be occasions when you
want to change course. But the framework that the plan provides will mean that you will not be taken by surprise by
market developments, or be pushed off course by unexpected developments.
▪ A marketing plan is a working document A marketing plan is no substitute for a crystal ball – but those don’t even
exist. A regular review of your plan to ensure that you are following it and to check that what you are following should
not have changed is essential. But that doesn’t mean that your plan should only be evaluated once a year at annual
review time. Indeed, as a working document, you should refer to it whenever you have a marketing decision to make
and revise it whenever you identify a shift in your market.
 The 7Ps of Marketing – The Marketing Mix
• The task of any business is to deliver customer value at a profit.
• In a hypercompetitive economy with increasingly informed buyers faced with abundant
choices, a company can win only by fine-tuning the value delivery process and choosing,
providing, and communicating superior value.
• Successful marketing depends upon addressing a number of issues which include:
• What a company is going to produce (according to consumer need);
• How much it is going to charge (that the consumers’ find reasonable);
• How it is going to deliver its products to the customer (at different outlets convenient to the consumers); and
• How it is going to tell its customers abouts its products and its characteristics (through the media consumers have
access to)..
• These are to be combined or mixed in an appropriate proportion so as to achieve the
marketing goal.
• Such mix of efforts is called the Marketing Mix
• Traditionally the marketing mix was known as the 4Ps – product, price, promotion and place.
• But as marketing become a more sophisticated discipline, additional 3 Ps were added – People,
Physical evidence and Process.
 The 7Ps of Marketing – The Marketing Mix

• According to Philip Kotler “Marketing Mix is the set of controllable variables that
the firm can use to influence the buyer’s response”.
• The controllable variables in this context refer to the 7 ‘P’s [product, price, place
(distribution) promotion, people, process and physical evidence].
• Each firm strives to build up such a composition of 7‘P’s, which can create
highest level of consumer satisfaction and at the same time meet its
organisational objectives.
• Thus, this mix is assembled keeping in mind the needs of target customers, and
it varies from one organisation to another depending upon its available
resources and marketing objectives.
The Marketing Mix: A bird’s Eye view

Product

Physical
Price
Evidence

Target
Customer
Process Promotion

Place
People
(distribution)
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Product Element of the Mix

• A product is defined as anything that can be offered for attention, acquisition, use or consumption
that might satisfy a want or a need.
• Products include goods, (cars, phones, clothes you wear) services (education, banking,
consultancy), ideas (family planning), places (beautiful Malaysia), persons, and organizations.
• Customers normally do not pay for the tangible products they are buying, but rather for the
benefit it will provide.
• So, in simple words, product can be described as a bundle of benefits which a marketer offers to
the consumer for a price.
• Prioritize making your product the best it can be and optimize your product lines accordingly –
design, quality, features, packaging and labelling, branding, etc.
• The product must provide value for the customer – the values is in the eyes of the beholder –
provide what customers want not what you think they want.
• The customer only cares about one thing: what your product or service can do for them.
• Beware of going to far with product quality – Do not sell a Rolls Royce when the customers actually
want a Nissan Micra.
• Developing a product or service involves defining the benefits.
• In planning its market offering, the marketer needs to address five product levels
THE PRODUCT ELEMENT LEVELS
Delivering Value to the Customer
THE PRODUCT ELEMENT LEVELS
Delivering Value to the Customer
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Price Element of the Mix

• Price is the amount of money charged for a product or service

• Price is an important element of the marketing mix: It affects the customer
decision to buy product,
• A product is only worth what customers are prepared to pay for it.
• Its has to be competitive )not necessarily the cheapest) – offer customer better
value for money but also provide a profit.
• It is the only element in the marketing mix that produces revenue; everything else
represent costs.
• Price positions your business in the market place – the more your charge, the
more value or quality your customers will expect for their money.
• Its is one of the most flexible marketing mix elements because it can be changed
quickly as you are selling unlike the other Ps
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Price Element of the Mix

Factors of Consideration when fixing price

• The business objective you want to achieve

• The demand for the product – demand versus supply, elasticity of
demand
• Estimated production and other related costs
• Prices set by competitors on the market for similar products
• Government restrictions
• The pricing method
Methods of Pricing
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Promotion Element of the Mix

• If the product is manufactured keeping the consumer needs in mind, is rightly priced and
made available at outlets convenient to them but the consumer is not made aware about
its price, features, availability etc, its marketing effort may not be successful.
• It is not just enough to have nice products that aim at satisfying customer needs - you
need to make necessary noise about them – or else no one will know, and no one will
buy!.
• Promotion is the marketing mix element that creates awareness of the products.
• Promotion is the way a business communicates what it does and what it can offer
customers.
• The reason is to inform, persuade or remind and influence customers to make choice of
the product to be bought.
• Good promotion must gain attention, must be appealing, tell a consistent message and
above all else, give the customer a reason to choose your products rather than someone
else’s. – AIDA concept.
• It is not about whether or not to communicate: It is more about what to say, how and
when to say it, to whom, and how often.
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Promotion Element of the Mix

• A combination of various communications approaches.

• Advertising:
• Sales promotion
• exhibitions
• Publicity: Publicity is a non-paid / non-personal communication
• Public relations -programs designed to promote or protect a company’s
image or its individual products.
• Direct marketing: - directly target specific customers and inform them
about your business or products - you can call them, visit them, and
write them an email and other direct means. – the fraudsters
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Place Element of the Mix

• The place is where customers will buy or get the product.

• The pace where the customers buy your product, and the means of distributing your
product to that place, must be appropriate and convenient for the customer.
• This marketing mix element, therefore, deals with making the products available and
accessible to customers’
• It is about making available
• What customers want
• When they want
• Where they want
• In the right quantities they want – while keeping storage, inventory and distribution costs to
an acceptable level,
• Place also means the way of displaying your products to customer groups: a shop or via
the internet.
• The organization has to decide whether to sell directly to the retailer or through the
distributors/wholesaler or directly to consumers
Delivering Value to the Customer: The Place Element of the Mix
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The People Element of the Mix

• Anyone who comes into contact with your customers will make an impression, and that
can have a profound effect - positive or negative - on the customer satisfaction.
• The reputation of your brand rests in your people’s hands. The must, therefore be
appropriately trained, well-motivated and the right attitude.
• It is essential to ensure that all employees who have contact with customers are not only
properly trained but also the right kind of people for the job. Well qualified or have proper
knowledge and skills for the job. Right attitudes with professionalism
• Many customers cannot separate the product or service from the staff member who provides
it. This shows the importance of your people.
• The level of after sale support and advice provided by a business is one way of adding value
to what you offer, and can give you an important edge over your competitors. This will
probable become more important than price for many customers once they start to use you.
• Look regularly at the products that account for the highest percentage of your sales. Do these
products have adequate after support, or are you being complacent with them? Could you
enhance your support without too much additional cost?
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Process Element of the Mix

• The process of giving a service, and the behaviour of those who deliver and crucial to
customer satisfaction.
• Issues such as waiting times, the information given to customers and the helpfulness of
staff are all vital to keep customers happy.
• Customers are not interested in the detail of how your business runs. What matters to them is
that the system works.
• Do customers have to wait? Are they kept informed? Are your people helpful? Is your service
efficiently carried out? Do your people interact in a manner appropriate to your service?
• Process in one of the “P’s” that is frequently overlooked.
• A customer trying to reach your company by phone is a vital source of income and
returning value; but so often customers have to stay on hold for several minutes listening
to a recorded message before they are able to get though.
• Many of these customers will hang up, go elsewhere and tell their friends not to use your
company.
• Process is the first experience of a company that many customers have and could be a
great sources of competitive advantage if used wisely.
 Delivering Value to the Customer: The Physical Evidence Element of the Mix

• A service can’t be experienced before it is delivered

• This means that choosing to use a service can be perceived as a risky business because
you are buying something intangible.
• This uncertainly can be reduced by helping potential customers to “see” what they are
buying.
• Cases studies and testimonials can provide evidence that an organization keeps its
promises.
• Facilities such as a clean, tidy and well-decorated reception area can also help to reassure.
• If your premises aren’t up to scratch, why would the customer think your service is.
• Physical evidence is about the environment in which a product is offered to the customers.
• It can include the ambience, the colour, lighting, the sound, the temperature, the decors,
etc etc.
• The physical evidence demonstrated by an organization must confirm the assumptions of
the customer – a financial services product will need to be delivered in a formal setting,
while a child’s birthday entertainment company should adopt a more relaxed approach.